Effective Tactical Analysis for Robbery Investigations

by Elizabeth Hall

Introduction

City X is besieged by multiple daytime robberiesinvolving multiple jurisdictions in the city. In the last year statistics show a 20% increase in robberies in general.   In order to effectively deal with this crime problem this agency will discuss what investigative steps should be taken to identify the sources of the problem.  We will also discuss what technological assistance may be needed; we will analyze the patterns of robberies committed during the day time, and come up with a plan for synthesizing the data.  After the patterns are identified and the data is synthesized we can decide what investigative units, equipment, and supplies are needed.  Once all of that is decided, we will look into acquiring funding to implement our strategic plan to reduce the daytime robberies in City X, and hopefully apprehend the person or persons responsible for the robberies.

Human blood droplets. An example of a forensics photograph of an imitation crime scene. A scale by a common object (United States Quarter) has been used. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Investigative Steps

When analyzing patterns and trends in crime there are several investigative steps that can be utilized to identify the source and implement strategic steps to deal with the trends (Bruce, Hicks, & Cooper, 2004). These are,

1.      Review police reports from all jurisdictions

2.      Re-interview any witnesses found in the police reports

3.      Review all forensic evidence from the cases found within the police reports.

4.      Review any camera footage captured at the scenes.

5.      Review the tactical analysis of the police agencies within the city’s multiple jurisdictions for trends and similarities they have already found.

6.      Synthesize the data for easier review by querying the robberies and organizing the data by details such as MO, time of day, or location.

7.      Map the offenses

8.      Determine if we can borrow any manpower from the agencies involved.

9.      Call agencies surrounding the city to determine if there are any increases in their areas.

10.  Look at any zoning changes, large population changes, or new businesses that could be affecting the rates of these crimes.

The effective utilization of these investigative steps will allow us to step back and develop strategical plans to effectively use our resources as wisely as possible (Bruce, Hicks, & Cooper, 2004).

Technological Assistance

Police agencies have come a long way since the days when everything was hand written and gone over piece by piece as noted by Foster (2000).  Some of the technical assistance that will be utilized in this strategic plan are fairly new tools brought on by the technological advances made with the invention of computers.   AFIS and NCIC are two databases maintained by law enforcement nationally which allow agencies to compare both arrest records and fingerprints to quickly locate matches or suspects recently arrested or released.  There will also be use of the Uniform Crime Report Data, and NIMBRS both which record incident reports.  Another technological tool that can be utilized is Geographical Information Software (GIS) that allows for analysts to create complex mapping data (International Association of Crime Analysts, (IACA), 2012.   

Analyzing the Robbery Pattern

The S.A.R.A. model of analytics is often used in law enforcement (Neighborhood Association of Michigan, 2000). There are four steps in this model, scanning, analyzing, response and assessment. Scanning is where you identify the problem, analyzing of course is where the raw data comes in.  Response is the strategic plans that are put into place, and assessment is where you decide if your plan is effective.  The first step in analyzing the robbery pattern is the gathering of raw data.  The data will be the police reports and tactical reports from the individual jurisdictions.  We will have to get them from each jurisdiction individually, and we need to examine at least the last five years to determine levels of change (Bruce, Hicks, & Cooper, 2004).

GemIdent analyzing results using data analysis and visualization tools (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Synthesizing the Data and Data Conclusion

The next step would be to synthesize the data to get what we are looking for easily.  What this means is taking out the data that is not needed in order to look at the particulars of the crimes we are interested in.  Once the data is synthesized we would interview any witnesses listed in the individual robbery reports, go over any forensic evidence collected to see if anything was missed that could help, and review any camera footage for the same reasons (Bruce, Hicks, & Cooper, 2004). Effectively we can measure the rate of change by dividing the number of robbery crimes by the population for each year looked at which would give us a per person comparison (Siegel, 2010). 

We can also measure the percentage of change in the last five years of robbery crimes by calculating the new data minus the old data, divided by the old data which would give us the percentage of change in robbery crimes. When we get the data the most effective way to manage this is to create a spreadsheet or database with all of the crime information by jurisdiction.  We can then drill down to separate the robberies from all of the other crimes reported.  The best way would be to arrange the data so that it can be sorted by jurisdiction, type of robbery, time of day, MO, and location, which will allow us to separate the data we are looking for easily (Bruce, Hicks, & Cooper, 2004).

What we have found through this process is that there is an increase in all jurisdictions of property crimes in general and robberies have increased in the areas located on the major highway that runs through all of them.  The data shows that the city population has doubled from five years ago, and convenience store robberies account for most of the increase.  This coincides with the increase in these types of businesses as the neighborhoods have grown considerably.  The robberies were committed by different Part of the solution is to increase patrols, and maintain a higher police presence in the neighborhoods, at least until we can get the problem contained. 

Investigative Units Needed

In order to effectively execute our strategic planning we needed to use several different investigative units.  These are comprised of the individual crime analysis units of the jurisdictions, the investigative units of each jurisdiction, regular beat cops, and of course the forensics team.  The solution requires us to hire more patrol units, at least two per jurisdiction.  Each patrol unit is comprised of two officers, so we will need a total of ten new officers for the city.

Metro Transit Police (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

Equipment and Supplies Needed

To complete our evaluation of this problem, we needed GIS software to aid in our crime mapping, and computers to crunch the numbers and save us time.  We also used database software such as Goldmine in all of the jurisdictions to effectively be able to keep records management.  Microsoft Access is also useful in crime analysis and is used in many police organizations by their crime analysis units.  None of these software packages are effective if the persons using them are not trained, so we have to have training programs available as well (IACA, 2012).  In our strategical solution we need to hire more patrol officers to maintain a high police presence.  This also requires that we have more patrol cars and more spots in the training facility for law enforcement officers.

Acquiring Funding

When agencies need more equipment or personnel they must apply for grants or funding from agencies designed or this usually associated with the Department of Justice.  There are programs within the Office of Community Policing for funding equipment and personnel increases that can be applied for such as the Cops Hiring Program, and the Community Policing Development program (COPS, 2013).  The National Institute of Justice offers funding programs and grants for equipment purchases such as the Justice Association Grant Program which applies funding for equipment purchases and new personnel.  There is also programs for transferring federal surplus property to state and local agencies at the National Institute of Justice (n.d.).

Conclusion

3201 S Halsted's Traffic Analysis Zone (Photo credit: Steven Vance)

When looking at crimes from a law enforcement perspective, crime analysis units provide the most effective information.  This is because it is their job to keep track of the data collected and to provide the agencies with reports and planning to deal with the crime problems of the jurisdiction.  In this essay we looked at the robbery pattern of City X, and discovered that the population has had an explosion, along with the increase of robbery crimes.  The recommendation is to hire more patrol personnel to ensure a high police presence in the areas affected by this population increase. To do this we need to apply for funding with an agency such as the National Institute of Justice or the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to afford the equipment and extra personnel needed to curb this problem. 

References:

Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P. (2004).  Exploring Crime Analysis Reading on Essential             Skills.  International Association of Crime Analysts.  Overland Park, KS.

Community Oriented Policing Services, (COPS) (2013).  Grants and Funding.  Retrieved From: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/default.asp?item=46

Foster, R.E. (2000).  Police Technology.  Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall

International Association of Crime Analysts (IACA), (2012).  GIS Software Requirements for Crime Analysts: Standards, Methodology, & Technology (SMT) Committee White Paper. Retrieved From http://www.iaca.net/Publications/IACA

National Associations of Michigan, (2002). What is S.A.R.A. Problem Solving? Retrieved From: http://www.a2gov.org/government/safetyservices/Police/Documents/SARA%20problem%20solving%20sheet.pdf

National Institute of Justice, (n.d.).  Funding for Equipment.  Retrieved From: http://www.nij.gov/funding/equipment-funding.htm

 Siegel, L.J. (2010). Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. Tenth Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

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Police and How Far the Long Arm of Really Is- My Vacation with Uncle Bob

by Elizabeth Hall

Rinnngggg… “Hello?” I answered; the voice on the other end was a voice I had not heard in a while. It was Uncle Bob.  We always hung out when he was in my neck of the woods. I lived in northern California, while he lived in the southern end of the state. He asked me if I wanted to go with him to Miami, Florida the next week, we would be leaving on Saturday. I told Uncle Bob that sounded fun, as I was currently on sabbatical from my job, and had plenty of free time.

On Saturday, we had arranged to meet at the airport, so I drove to the meeting place. Bob looked a little nervous and disheveled but that was not completely out of character for Uncle Bob who had always been a bit odd. He suggested that we rent a car and make a longer trip out of it, driving to Miami. Since Uncle Bob had offered to pay for the trip, I replied that it sounded like fun. Off we went driving across the country, exploring the states in between California and Florida having a great time. It took us two weeks to reach Miami. That is when all the trouble started.

NYPD boat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Officer John Davenport pulled out of the police-parking garage to begin his shift. He was a five-year veteran on the force, and loved his job in the Traffic Division of the Miami-Dade Police Force. He drove through his familiar patrol route, checking the hot spots for speeding violations. Currently he was positioned on the interstate clocking speeds of motorists entering his county. He spots a vehicle doing 75MPH when the speed limit is 55MPH.

“Woo Woo” Officer Davenport turns on the siren and picks up his radio “I have a traffic stop, on I-10 at the 108 mile marker” he reports to dispatch. “White Toyota Celica, license plate 786-CAF”. The dispatcher on the other end cackles “got it”. He gets out of his car, and approaches the suspect vehicle. He notices a man and a woman in the front seat, and waits a second for the driver to open his window fully. “I pulled you over because you were speeding about a mile back on the road. May I see your license and registration please?” All the while, Uncle Bob is looking particularly nervous, but he hands the documents to the officer. I am beginning to wonder why Uncle Bob looks this way, as officer Davenport leaves the car and sits down in his cruiser. (Foster, 2005)

Seal of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), USA. — “Servicing Our Citizens” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Officer Davenport sits down in his car, and runs Uncle Bob’s driver’s license through the scanner but this takes a few minutes for the information on the bar code information to come up. In the meantime, he is running the driver information through the national law enforcement database, called the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), with the aid of his computer equipped in the squad car. (Foster, 2005)

It was only a few minutes later that I found out why Uncle Bob looked so nervous. Unbeknownst to me, before we left California, Saturday morning, Uncle Bob had gone into a bank, and committed armed robbery with a firearm. The trip was really a cover for him to get out of town, and taking me with him, supported his alibi that he was preparing for a cross-country trip at the time of the burglary. Where he failed in his plan, was that he bought his disguise for the bank robbery at the sporting goods store right across the street from the bank he was going to rob. The police were looking at the surveillance tape to see if they could see the suspect enter the bank, but what they saw was Uncle Bob, entering the sporting goods store, then exiting, putting his mask on his head, which was a ski mask, then crossing the street. I always knew that Uncle Bob was a little odd, but I never dreamed that he would do something like this.

Digital photo taken by Marc Averette. Downtown Miami, Florida, showing Manhattanization 2/2/2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was the nervousness that Uncle Bob had displayed that caused officer Davenport to initially, run Uncle Bob’s information through the NCIC system. When he ran it, he discovered that Uncle Bob was wanted in California for armed robbery. He came back to the car, asked Uncle Bob to step out of the vehicle, and after asking him about the incident, officer Davenport arrested Uncle Bob.

Since Uncle Bob committed armed robbery with a firearm, what happened to him was that he was extradited to California, where he stood trial, and received a sentence of 13 years. The mandatory sentence for armed robbery is, five years for the initial robbery, with an additional eight years for using a firearm as his weapon. (Hardy, 2000)

References:

Foster, R.E. (2000). Police Technology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall

Hardy, B.H. (2000). Imprisonment for Armed Robbery. OLR Research Report. Retrieved From the World Wide Web April 18, 2010. http://www.cga.ct.gov/2000/rpt/olr/htm/2000-R-0510.htm

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Crime Analysis Essays: A Look at Crime Series- Armed Robbery Incident Data Reporting

By Elizabeth Hall

Introduction

The job of the Crime Analyst involves the collection and analyzing data for their local, state, and federal jurisdictions, whichever that may be.  The position involves tactical, strategical, and administrative functions of analysis and the individual analyst can be responsible for any one of these categories, or all of these categories depending on the size of the agency they are employed with.  This series of short essays on the subject will deal with tactical analysis of incident reports collected from a local law enforcement office.  The analyst has discovered a crime series dealing with armed robberies of local establishments, and looks deeper at the trend. This crime constitutes a series because the descriptions of suspects, the Modus Operandi, and statements and actions made during the commission of the crimes are all very similar. (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

Chart indicating the number of crimes in time and location from the 2004 Uniform Crime Report. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Type of Analysis

According to the International Association of Crime Analysts (2004), there are three types of analysis done by crime analysts, strategical, tactical, and administrative.  Strategical analysis involves trends, problems, and causes, and analyzes data over long periods. Administrative analysis a larger category, that utilizes data for administrative reports, research, and information not related to reducing the crime rate.  Tactical analysis refers to the everyday analysis done from the incident reports of the agency, to determine trends, patterns, and hot spots within the jurisdiction.  The following excerpts deal with the tactical analysis of an armed robbery crime series.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

The data is comprised of Call to Service Reports (CSR) that the analyst has, already added, or needs to add to their matrix.  What makes this tactical analysis is that the analyst comprises data in order to help law officers apprehend a particular set of criminals operating within their jurisdiction, committing a particular type of crime.  This is not intended to provide long-term help, or administrative help to the department, rather to enable them to devise tactical plans to aid the apprehension of criminals committing a crime series.  Criminals committing series of crimes grow more confident and are willing to take bigger risks for bigger targets when they are not apprehended quickly.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

Does This Constitute a Crime Series

Crime Time (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A crime series is a pattern of crimes committed by the same people or person.  When an analyst is collecting data from their jurisdictional CSR’s notices a pattern in a particular crime over time, they may compare these reports with each other to determine whether there is a common factor between the details of the reports.  In our example, we are looking at three armed robberies.  Because witness descriptions, modus operandi, and statements made by offenders are all similar in nature, along with the same property stolen in each instance, thus indicating that, this is a series of crimes perpetrated by the same offenders.  With only slight variances between crimes, it is easy to deduce that we have a crime series happening in our jurisdiction.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

Clues to Offender Identity

In analyzing all three incident reports simultaneously, there are a number of clues given to the identity of the offenders.  We know that we are looking for two male suspects in an early 2000 model Ford Taurus, wearing black hoodie type shirts.  The car has temporary tags. We know that the suspect in the “scream” mask had an accent.  From this information, we can also deduce that the suspect without the accent is a white male, and check the databases for the unique tattoo. Another clue is that one or both offenders smoke Marlboro cigarettes because if they were taking cartons to sell, they would likely take different brands, and more than four cartons in an instance.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

Consistent Elements of Modus Operandi

http://openclipart.org/clipart/people/magnifying_glass_01.svg License: PublicDomain Keywords: people Author: AbiClipart Title: Magnifying Glass (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In analyzing the three robberies, there are some factors remaining consistent in all instances.  The offender or offenders always brought a gun, which was in plain sight.  In order to calm the victim one of them always advised them not to do anything stupid to avoid physical harm. A “saw” mask is utilized in all three, and the “scream” mask in two in order to hide their identities.  The suspect in the “saw” mask always jumps over the counter and might be the leader.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

Differential Elements of Modus Operandi

There were also some differences in the modus operandi of each crime.  In the first robbery, only the suspect in the “saw” mask spoke, however, in the second robbery they both spoke, but the script was essentially the same.  In both the second and third incidences, the criminals have a car, but none is reported at the first crime.  In the first and second crimes, both suspects entered the establishment whereas in the third, one stayed in the car to “keep it running”.  In the third instance, the leader in the “saw” mask resorted to violence when faced with a screaming victim alone. It would seem to be that the partners in crime are evolving during the commission of the series even changing their regular night to commit the crimes.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

Work Products Generated

Crimeclock2005-property (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Included in the series report generated to give to the officers, one would include a matrix detailing the three crimes, a map so the officers can visualize the distance between crimes, which in this case is not far.  One would also give detailed information on suspect information including the statements they made and the descriptions that are compiled.  Possible targets would be included, along with any professional opinion about the series.  Any other miscellaneous details would also be included in the report.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

Conclusion

     The job of crime analyst is an important function of a successful, efficient law enforcement office.  It is the job of the analyst to gather and analyze data and report on the strategical, administrative, or tactical functions that the data can serve. In the discovery of patterns of crime, the analyst can inform officers of the pattern, and other information discerned from analyzing the data in order to aid the capture of the offender. Crime analysts also advise the administration aiding to effectively manage the budgets of agencies.  They also provide data analysis to aid in the planning of strategic long-term programs and procedures designed to reduce crime in their jurisdictions.  (Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P., 2004)

References:

Bruce, C.W., Hick, S.R., & Cooper, J.P. (2004).  Exploring Crime Analysis Reading on Essential             Skills.  International Association of Crime Analysts.  Overland Park, KS.

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